Time To Consider Expanding Prescribing Rights

Main Category: Pharmacy / Pharmacist
Article Date: 25 Jun 2009 - 6:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

Governments and health professionals across Australia need to give full and detailed consideration to granting pharmacists and other non-medial health professionals the right to prescribe medications, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia says.

President of the PSA, Warwick Plunkett, said today that some non-medical health professions have already been granted prescribing rights and it was time that this right was also granted to pharmacists.

Mr Plunkett said pharmacists were ideally placed to prescribe because of their detailed knowledge of medications and their face-to-face interaction with consumers. "Pharmacists are guided by the principles of quality use of medicines and securing the optimum health outcomes for consumers and these are fundamental to the guidelines for prescribing," he said.

Authorities should also consider extending prescribing nights to other non-medical health professionals but a focused approach was needed in any such decision. "In most cases the process has largely been driven by each health professional group and implemented on an ad hoc basis without the opportunity to consider uniformity, common goals and core principles across all health professions," he said. "It is time to formally consider prescribing by pharmacists and other non-medical health professionals as a major initiative to help facilitate a more efficient and effective health system."

But Mr Plunkett said any approval must be based on some solid principles including:

- Patient safety and access to high-quality care being of paramount importance in any such initiative

- Prescribing rights being granted in a way that helps to enhance timely access to medicines

- Prescribing rights being granted in a safe and cost-effective manner for the consumer

- Health professionals having a full understanding of, and a commitment to, the principles of the Quality Use of Medicines

- Prescribing and dispensing functions being clearly delineated.

"The PSA believes such a framework must be focused on consumers and be underpinned by a primary concern for the delivery of safe and high-quality care," Mr Plunkett said. "It must also enhance the timely access to medicines and to maintaining a continuity of care; as well as promoting the quality use of medicines."

Source
Pharmaceutical Society of Australia